To help organizations face the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve been sharing knowledge, in addition to making new features, templates and configuration packages available to our customers free of charge.
I recently spoke with Guillaume Escourbiac, Product Manager for mobile solutions at Enablon.
I inquired with Guillaume about the use of mobile devices and apps in the context of responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Let’s see what he had to say.
Many workers use smartphones or tablets at work. What is the immediate and first thing that organizations should do to leverage mobile devices in the context of responding to the COVID-19 crisis?
Guillaume: Keeping constant communication is the big challenge today. Companies must make sure that field workers get the latest information available related to risks they may face. Almost everybody is equipped with mobile devices. Let’s leverage them!
Some companies have stopped most operations, or have their employees working from home. But there are still some key sectors of the economy that are very much active, for example the food industry, health care, transportation and logistics, some manufacturing sectors, some retail locations (e.g. grocery stores, pharmacies), etc.
Organizations should stay in touch with their frontline employees, to make sure that they follow proper practices to avoid infection, and to give them access to important documents. In fact, they should consider communicating with their workers about the COVID-19 situation every single day, to re-assure them that they are effectively monitoring the situation. And there’s no better way to reach people directly than through their own smartphones or tablets, or those provided by their company for performing their tasks.
What type of mobile solutions can we provide today to the Enablon community to help with their COVID-19 response?
Guillaume: First, the Enablon Go mobile app can be used to perform periodic inspections on infection prevention measures aligned with OSHA’s Guidance. A specific COVID-19 checklist exists for this purpose. If a specific measure is not being followed, the app asks the user to enter more information, including images or videos, to ensure a prompt follow-up. We’re helping our customers proactively monitor the effectiveness of controls designed to prevent infections.
Second, companies can encourage employees to adopt proper infection prevention behaviors with a new checklist, which is different than the inspection checklist described above. This checklist aims to drive behaviors that will minimize infection risks. The checklist can be used by all frontline workers, team leads, or managers of at-risk sites, whatever works best for our customers.
Third, organizations can push notifications to all employees. They can also make available educational content from health and government organizations. If there is great content on COVID-19 and how people can protect themselves, the resource can be included in the Enablon Go mobile app toolbox, to make sure that workers have instant access to it.
Finally, one of our customers has an unusual use case that I think is worth mentioning. They informed us that in some cases Human Resources personnel are absolutely overwhelmed. But this organization uses the Enablon Go mobile app to capture key information required by HR. For example, the app is used to follow-up on suspected cases. The information is then consolidated to show HR all the impacts on personnel. Even though Enablon Go is used as an EHS app by this organization, it’s also being leveraged for HR issues as well.
You mentioned in your previous answer that organizations can proactively monitor the effectiveness of controls designed to prevent infections. This sounds like a key use of mobile technology. Can you provide an example?
Guillaume: Before continuing, it’s worth reminding that the proactive monitoring of controls is not a mobile-only solution. It includes a central EHS and Risk platform, but the mobile part is certainly an important one because it’s a first data collection point.
In the early days of the crisis, Asia was hardest hit. Then the COVID-19 pandemic spread to Europe, before also spreading to North America. Some of our clients understood that the virus would eventually spread to other regions. They implemented controls in the affected regions, and leveraged mobile technology to implement and verify the same types of controls also in areas that were not yet affected.
For example, before COVID-19 cases increased substantially in the U.S., they conducted inspections though the Enablon Go mobile app to ensure that their U.S. sites had adequate supply of PPE, that good behaviors, like frequently washing hands, were encouraged, and that other prevention policies were followed. This allowed them to identify at-risk sites and prepare them for the eventual increase of COVID-19 cases. It’s really a remarkable example of having great foresight and being proactive.
In what ways do you think the COVID-19 pandemic may change how organizations leverage mobile technologies?
Guillaume: I think organizations will have a greater appreciation of the benefits of mobile technology in the context of crisis management, not just EHS or safety management. Many organizations were already there, and were leveraging mobile devices as a key aspect of communication during a crisis. But the COVID-19 pandemic will be a turning point for those organizations that were still not leveraging mobile technologies for crisis management.
There’s also another item, not as important as the previous one but still interesting. With social distancing, we see people use paper money less often. People are paying more often with cards or their smartphones. The trend was already there, but COVID-19 may accelerate it. I think it’s the same thing with paper and pen. We may witness an accelerated decline in the use of paper and pen in processes, such as filling and signing forms (e.g. Permit to Work), in favor of mobile technologies. Just like for the previous item, COVID-19 is not giving birth to this trend, but may accelerate it.
And finally, how has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted you personally? How are you handling social distancing and working from home?
Guillaume: I was already working from home and would go to the Paris office about twice a month. So for me the impact has been minimal professionally. I know these are challenging times, but I want to share a fun story. All my colleagues are now working from home, and just like my children, their children are also home. So we’re getting used to hearing background noise of kids, and sometimes it makes us laugh. Sometimes children may even be visible in the background whenever we have video calls, and they may even look at what’s happening. It’s as if social distancing and being home is giving an opportunity for children of Enablonians to meet each other online!
Another impact is that we’re learning to work without traveling, since everything must be done from home. This may result in a silver lining, even though it may be difficult to think in those terms. Since we’re developing the habit of working without traveling, it may help us avoid unnecessary travels when things return to normal. This would not only reduce costs, but also reduce greenhouse gas emissions. So out of tragedy, maybe there will be some good for the planet.
That’s our Q&A with Guillaume Escourbiac. We hope that it gives you a greater appreciation of the productive role that mobile technology can play for COVID-19 response and other needs.
Check out also our post on how three companies are responding to the COVID-19 crisis. In addition, Taylor Allis, our VP of Product and Marketing, shared his thoughts; and there’s a Q&A post with David Rocha on incident management systems and COVID-19.
